FCC Chair Threatens ABC Over Refusal to Air Trump Speech, Raising Alarms About Free Press
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FCC Chairman Brendan Carr's announcement that ABC's decision not to broadcast Trump's speech will be scrutinized in license reviews is a chilling move against press freedom, while Commissioner Anna Gomez warns against government overreach and compelled speech.
Federal Communications Commission Chairman Brendan Carr has taken the alarming step of targeting ABC for exercising its editorial independence by choosing not to air President Donald Trump's July 16 address on so-called 'election security.' Carr's move to tie this decision to the early review of ABC's eight owned-and-operated stations is a clear attempt to intimidate the press and undermine the network's autonomy in serving the public interest.
'I think that when you have the president of the United States standing inside the White House delivering an important speech, I think that’s something that broadcasters should be carrying,' Carr said at a press conference, disregarding the fundamental right of news organizations to decide what is truly newsworthy.
ABC, standing firm in its refusal to be bullied, declined to comment on the matter.
Democratic commissioner Anna Gomez courageously pushed back against Carr’s authoritarian rhetoric, underscoring that the FCC has no business dictating editorial decisions or forcing broadcasters to air government propaganda. 'It is not for the FCC to tell broadcasters how to make their editorial decisions or what content to place on their networks or their local broadcast stations,' Gomez said. 'If we tell them they can’t broadcast something, that’s censorship, and it’s compelled speech if we tell them they have to do so.'
Gomez rightly added that the public-interest standard should never be weaponized to punish speech the administration dislikes, a principle vital to any functioning democracy.
The FCC has previously targeted ABC, ordering the network to reapply for spectrum licenses on an accelerated schedule, citing a dubious investigation into diversity, equity, and inclusion practices. Disney, ABC’s parent company, filed the renewal applications 'under protest,' calling the order unlawful and unconstitutional, and later launched a viewer outreach campaign to expose the proceeding. This pattern of harassment reveals a dangerous trend of government interference in the free press.